Hugh's Top Tips for a Corking Christmas

Do a few dishes, well. Pick your favourite Christmas dinner components and concentrate your energies on making them to the best of your ability.

2. Rest your meat!

You may well have heard this one before. And you may have dismissed it as some slightly cheffy bit of fuss. In fact, it is beyond doubt that resting the roast changes the eating quality of the meat; leaving it tender, juicier and therefore more flavoursome.

3. Preparation, preparation, preparation

Get as much done in advance as you can. It’s not fun if you’re still peeling carrots when the family arrives on Christmas morning. You can get the veg prepped the night before. You can even get started on the turkey by removing the legs and cooking them separately. By braising them in red wine with onion, garlic and rosemary you’ll also have yourself a tasty gravy stock ready to roll on Christmas day.

4. Overcrowding your oven

If you’ve ever hosted Christmas, you’ve probably had a moment of despair where you can’t get everything in the oven, no matter how you arrange the various trays and dishes. However, it really is important to not overcrowd the oven because things won’t cook as they should. When it comes to roast potatoes, make sure there’s plenty of space between them. If you pile them up on top of each other, they’ll steam when what you want is for to them fry in the bottom of the roasting tray.

5. The leftovers

We hate to see things go to waste, so once you have finished picking at the turkey make sure you simmer the bones with some root vegetables to make the base for a great turkey broth. Whizz leftover roast root vegetables with a little yoghurt, garlic and toasted cumin seed to make roast veg hummus, and stir the unused jar of mincemeat into a north African inspired stew.

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